“Do you ever feel like a comic strip character?” This was the topic of conversation at a weekly dinner with some pals of mine last week.

“My secret self is Popeye; who are you?”

When I first approached this train of thought, I was alone at my desk, wondering what I wanted to write about and the thought crossed my mind about playing cops and robbers as a boy. Or Cowboys and Indians. Or Alley Oop.

So who am I when I make that first call to a prospect or when I answer a call from a troubled client or write up an order for my favorite customer?

What hat am I wearing when I ask a lady for a dinner date?

Is there a cape in my imaginary closet?

A sword?

A turned around collar?

A red Captain Marvel suit?

Our lives begin with affirmation.

By the time we are eighteen months old we have mastered the challenge of scientific observation and established our most basic methods of coping with fear. We know to act innocent or guilty, we are aggressive or pleasant, we push and we pull.

For the next couple of decades we will be creating our personas, aping lines from songs, the latest styles and speech patterns and our most private thoughts will be linked somehow to the need for approval either for protection from violence or for good vibrations as saluted by Mike Love in the sixties.

And if from all of this there emerges a goal for defining our true selves chances are we shall all benefit from this, including the servant.

“”I believe in evidence. I believe in observation, measurement, and reasoning, confirmed by independent observers. I’ll believe anything, no matter how wild and ridiculous, if there is evidence for it.The wilder and more ridiculous something is, however, the firmer and more solid the evidence will have to be.

—Isaac Asimov[1]

No one knows the future; everyone creates it.

Every action begins with an idea.

Every idea, when repeated grows stronger.

Affirmations really do come true.

Affirmations become reality whether spoken alone or as a group.

Affirming the destruction of Planet Earth is a popular idea.

HOWEVER…

Popularity is not a good reason for choosing Fear.

We must love the vengeful insiders.

The salvation of us all will come not from doing battle but by experiencing Love.

Smile; our only hope is to Accept the Gift of Love and to Pass it on.

Revenge and punishment are the smug expression of weak egos and bad dreams.

This is the Sermon of the Bully Pulpit.

The angry parent who spanks their child while stating “I’m doing this for your own good” is a liar.